Writers read because they love experiencing the “trip to another place in someone else’s head” but also to expand their vocabulary, learn diverse writing styles and techniques, and gain a deeper understanding of storytelling and reader expectations, ultimately improving their own craft.
If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.” - Stephen King, On Writing
What We can Learn from Reading Different Genres
Horror stories build dread more consistently than any other genre. These stories express and explore fear in big and small ways.
Need help with dialog? Romance fiction features engaging banter between people and explores passion (and not just in a sexual way.)
Good science fiction creates a level of suspension of disbelief and explores big questions about humanity, science and technology.
If you have concerns about your world building skills, read fantasy. Well-written fantasy novels have systems maintaining realism in their worlds, societies, and magic systems that readers willingly accept.
Need to improve your plotting skills? Read Mysteries. Mysteries feature intricate story structures that weave clues and red herrings with thought and detail.
And of course, there are or on subjects you might wish to explore in your writing.
We're asking each other what is on our reading list but we don't limit it to physical books. Fiction and non-fiction come in lots of formats these days: visual, audio, digital, and physical. So feel free to include blogs, audiobooks, YouTube channels, or podcasts. It's all part of your reading list.
What WITS Authors are Reading
Jenn
Currently I am reading the new Hunger Games novel, Sunrise on the Reaping but Suzanne Collins. Before that I worked my way through the Gild series by Raven Kennedy.
My TBR list is long and I am trying my best to chip away at it these days, but so many good books keeping coming out!
Jenny
I'm often reading multiple books at once, and they're always in different genres. My day job books are usually non-fiction, and focus on necessary skills. Which means my leisure book at that same time will be much lighter. Below are my current reads.
Non-fiction
The Storyteller's Secret by Carmine Gallo. He also wrote, "Talk Like TED." From the blurb: "..communication expert Carmine Gallo reveals the keys to telling powerful stories that inspire, motivate, educate, build brands, launch movements, and change lives." I'm several chapters in, and taking notes like crazy. He is totally living up to the hype.
Fiction
Look on the Bright Side by Kristan Higgins. I just started this book, and it is already making me laugh. It's definitely a good summer beach read, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the love story develops between "Dr. Satan" (the super-repressed hero) and Dr. Smith, the new resident whose tender heart and quick-to-cry compassion just got her kicked out of oncology.
Lynette
I'm obsessed with Karin Nordin, a behavior change expert and CEO of Body Brain Alliance. I've found her YouTube videos helpful in identifying ways to improve my behaviors so I can be healthier in mind and body and that makes me a more productive writer.
The Expanse series by James S. A. Corey is my guilty pleasure reading and an inspiration and illustration of relationship and tension building in another world.
Lisa
Reading isn't just my passion, it also falls into my job description. I have the best job.
Non-fiction
Experience Jesus. Really: Finding Refuge, Strength, and Wonder through Everyday Encounters with God by John Eldredge. I'm a big fan of anything John or Stacy Eldredge write. While these are Christianity focused, they often have hugely applicable real-world themes. In this one, he proposes that we may have become disciples of the internet, losing our sense of wonder and replacing it with the need to know everything right away. He then goes into how this impacts our lives.
Fiction
Tentative title: Empire (forthcoming) by Victoria Bley. We're doing final prep on this historical fiction before publication and I get to spend my time with Borte and Temujen (better known as Ghenghis Khan), delighting in their romance while trying to remember that I'm supposed to be watching for errors.
Reading with Your Writer Hat On
Sometimes a writer cannot help but read with her writer hat on and analyze the story as she reads. Other times the reader in her won't let go of an engaging character or story line. Neither is wrong or right. We read for many reasons and no matter what we read, it feeds our writer brain.
Inspire us with your choices. Please share what's on your reading list in the comments.
I entered the writing world reasonably late in life – the year I turned fifty. I came home from work one day (I taught fifth graders) and decided it was time to start writing the story that had been rumbling around in my head for a few years. I had no training, no notion how I was supposed to go about it other than I needed a beginning, a middle and an end, and that my book was a romance, my favorite genre to read.
With a mental oh well, here goes nothing, I opened my laptop and typed ‘Chapter One’.
First words led to...
The words poured out of me. Tripped over themselves. Fought to get onto that Word document as fast as humanly possible. And then, as if that wasn’t a big enough rush, I had a moment. A spooky moment. One I’ll never, ever forget.
I was typing a bunch of dialogue for my two main characters, Nick and Lainey. I’d had this scene in my head for a long time. Knew what needed to be said, the way it would be said, how the whole convo would go.
Except it didn’t.
My fingers started typing words I hadn’t thought of. The conversation shot off in a different direction. And then the goosebumps started. I was Nick. I was Lainey.
I had been hijacked.
By my own characters.
From then on, every night after dinner, I escaped to my room with my laptop for a couple of hours. It took me sixteen months to finish my first draft, but that’s because it was massive. Stupid big. I’d written my characters’ story from the moment they met at eight, until they had their HEA at twenty-seven. But size didn’t matter. The whole thing flowed like the Orinoco.
Once I’d learned the meaning of ‘in media res', I cut my book in half. Countless drafts later, I submitted it, and A Simple Mistake was picked up by a small press. Two years later, my second book came out. It had been much harder to write, but with a lot of help from my critique partner (love you, Catherine!) I made my deadline. Two years after that, I was part of an indie novella collection. Writing that first draft was like pushing a peanut across the floor with my nose, worn down to the cartilage by the time I sprawled over the line just in time.
Why was it so hard to finish a draft? I could still come up with characters, work out their wounds and flaws and wants and needs, come up with ideas for scenes. I could even get up to twenty thousand words per story, but after that?
Crickets. Cicadas. Grasshoppers. And locusts. Don’t forget the locusts. Hordes of them. Non-stop and loud.
What was wrong with me?
Why couldn’t I write?
I refused to give up. I read craft books. Read blogs, tried everything they suggested. Made myself open my laptop most days only to get disappointed again and again and again when my brain would throw up its hands, saying, ‘Nuh-uh. Not doing this today, baby’.
The worst was when I went to a workshop held by a relatively successful Australian author, hoping to get help, only to be told in a very stern tone, ‘There’s no such thing as writer’s block. It’s just a lack of self-discipline.’ I already had one of her books at home. I threw it out.
This went on for seven years. Seven. Long. Years.
It seemed to me I was doing everything I could to claw my way out of my deep dark bunker. I had tons of support so what was wrong with me? The frustration was epic.
My Journey
Let me preface the next bit by saying this is my journey. It may not be anyone else’s. But I have the utmost empathy for anyone who experiences what I have been going through. And if my story can help even one writer, I will be over-the-moon-and-around-the-stars happy.
And then … I read Becca Syme’s book, ‘Dear Writer You Need to Quit.’
Sounds a tad alarming, doesn’t it? But, under the title it lists three things: What to keep, what to quit, what to question. And I needed to know.
I’d been told this book was right up my alley, and it absolutely was. It gave me hope and encouragement and a light at the end of the tunnel I knew wasn’t an oncoming train. Many things spoke to me, but the one that grabbed me was the one giving me permission to question the old adage ‘You can’t edit a blank page.’
This mantra had taken over my brain and was not helpful. Then Becca explained how some people need time to think about their story and have it all in their head, even do a bunch of editing before they type Chapter One.
Wait. That was how I’d written my first book, right? I’d dreamed up scenes, then adjusted and adjusted and adjusted some more before I’d put anything onto a word document. And it was okay to be this way? Huh.
The way I was wired.
Then I came across Becca’s ‘The Author Stuck List’, where she describes the six most common reasons writers get stuck. And for two of them, all I could think was wow-wow-wow!
I learned:
It’s okay to have a whole book in my head before I start writing.
It’s okay not to be able to write if I can’t visualise a scene like a movie in front of me.
It’s okay to take time to research the details rather than leave markers to come back to.
It’s understandable for me not to be able to create if I’m all peopled out.
It’s understandable for me not to be able to create if I’ve been busy taking care of others.
Becca got me! She understood how I was wired. She knew why I’d got stuck!
And finally, so did I.
When I look back over the last few years, I can see why my creativity dried up. I’m not going to go into more detail than that because some of the reasons for my stuckness are personal.
But that’s precisely the point.
Writer’s block is personal.
It’s true that sometimes the answer to writer’s block is a matter of exercising self-discipline, like sticking to a writing routine or restricting time spent doom scrolling. It’s also true that sometimes the answer is to go psychologically deeper.
So, after my plethora of light bulb moments, would the words start coming now?
No, not necessarily, because some of the reasons for my lack of creativity are still to be navigated. However, there are some very positive signs. The load of guilt for not getting words on a page has lessened significantly. My imagination is flowing more freely. My PhD in procrastination is getting a little dusty.
I’ve also been giving myself permission to do whatever writerly thing I want. Mostly I’ve been outlining and researching and working on characterisation on several books. Some people would think that’s crazy, but I’ve loved it! And if that’s getting me back in the game, then why not? The upside is, it’s helped me put on my brave, open my laptop and add several hundred fresh words to a WIP. Twice!
Early days yet, but I think I might be on to something <wink>
Has anyone else experienced writer’s block for this long? Is anyone like me, still emerging? I’d love to hear tips and thoughts from those who’ve made it to the other side.
About Andrea
Andrea Grigg has been a reader of romance novels forever although she never expected to end up writing them!
Born in New Zealand, Andrea moved to Australia where she promptly met her husband.(Good move, wasn't it?)
As well as raising three children - all now adults - Andrea taught ten-year-olds for a number of years but has now retired in order to write. Because she loves it.
Her first book, 'A Simple Mistake', a contemporary Christian romance, was published in 2012, and 'Too Pretty' followed in 2014. However, she is now re-writing those and transforming them into sweet rom-coms.
In the meantime, please enjoy reading her novella, 'All is Bright', a Christmas story you can read all year round.
“You ever stare at a blank page like it owes you money? Yeah, me too. That’s why I created something that broke the dam in my brain: Trigger Questions.” —Jaime Buckley
Let me tell you a secret:
I didn’t write my Chronicles of a Hero universe because I had it all figured out.
I wrote it because I asked better questions.
When writers tell me they’re stuck, overwhelmed, or drowning in a sea of disconnected worldbuilding notes, I nod politely. Then I slide a sheet across the table like a dealer in a high-stakes card game.
It’s a list of what I call Trigger Questions.
Believe it or not, one sheet is enough to change everything.
So... What the Heck Are Trigger Questions?
They’re not writing prompts.
They're not brainstorming tools.
They’re mind grenades—questions that force your imagination to respond, to create, to connect the dots of your fictional world in ways you never saw coming.
Trigger Questions are a cornerstone of the way I write, and they were born from pure desperation. I had all these amazing ideas swirling in my head, but when it came time to sit down and write?
Nada.
Zilch.
My muse took the bus and didn’t leave a forwarding address.
This wasn't about 'writers block' which to this day, I disagree is a thing. The ideas were there. I have access to the creativity.
…it just wouldn't make much sense outside my own mind.
So I did what I always do when life kicks me in the face—I asked myself “Why?”
Why Questions?
Why are the gear-run clocks across the city all set 12 minutes slow—and why must they never, ever, be corrected?(Who made that rule… and who enforces it?)
Why do the homeless gnomes in Sector 9 trade dried mushroom caps with blessings carved into them—despite not believing in the gods?(And what happens when a blessing is broken?)
Why does the King's Army require new recruits to walk barefoot through the Garden of Ash—and why are only some of them ever seen again?(What grows in that soil that refuses to burn?)
Why is one of the Iskäri High Council members secretly funding illegal Bloodsticks games in the Black Market tunnels—and what does he risk if the other Elders find out?(What is he trying to buy… or distract from?)
And then it hit me.
If I could ask the right kind of questions, ones that begged for story logic... the answers would build the world for me.
So I built a system.
I call it the UP-Chuck Method (gross name, memorable system)—a process of vomiting up raw, messy ideas and shaping them through curiosity. Trigger Questions are the fuel that keep it going.
🧠 Why They Work When Nothing Else Does
Your brain is a puzzle solver. It hates loose ends. Ask it a question—especially a weird one—and it will bend over backwards to answer it. But it has to be the right kind of question.
Here’s the magic: Trigger Questions are designed to ripple.
One answer leads to another question. That leads to a new connection. That leads to a rule, a culture, a character quirk, or a political uprising that changes the course of your story.
It’s exponential.
And this isn’t just me flapping my lips—it’s backed by actual psychology.
🧠 The Zeigarnik Effect
In the 1920s, psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik discovered that people tend to remember unfinished tasks better than completed ones. That tension—an open loop in the brain—keeps things lingering in your subconscious until they’re resolved. That means when you ask a compelling question, your mind doesn’t let go until it gets an answer. 👉 Learn more here: https://www.verywellmind.com/zeigarnik-effect-memory-overview-4175150
🧠 Instinctive Elaboration
Then there’s something called instinctive elaboration—a cognitive reflex documented by researchers at Columbia University. When your brain hears a question, it actually hijacks your attention and forces you to think about it, often at the expense of whatever else you were focused on. 👉 Read the summary here: https://business.columbia.edu/press-releases/cbs-press-release/want-know-what-your-brain-does-when-it-hears-question
That’s the real juice behind Trigger Questions. They tap into this natural curiosity reflex and won’t let your imagination off the hook. You become your own idea machine—because your brain has no choice but to fill in the blanks.
I’ve seen this happen not just in my work, but in the lives of hundreds of writers who’ve messaged me after trying the system.
One guy used a single Trigger Question—"Who’s not allowed in the sacred garden, and why?"—and ended up with a 3-book trilogy about magical caste systems and a rebellion led by a talking raven priest.
That’s the power of asking smart, strange, irresistible questions.
🧭 It’s Not a System. It’s a Compass.
Most worldbuilding tools feel like spreadsheets.
You know the ones I mean—columns of dry details that look great on paper but somehow never make your story breathe. They ask for things like average rainfall, government structures, or what your economy exports. Useful? Maybe. Inspiring? Rarely.
But Trigger Questions?
They’re not checklists. They’re compasses.
They don’t give you a map. They give you direction. They say, “That way. There’s something alive over there—go find it.” And nine times out of ten, what you find isn’t what you expected… it’s something better.
Trigger Questions don’t care if your city has three trade guilds or five. What they care about is this:
Why is no one allowed to make eye contact with the guildmaster’s apprentice?
Why are the only bridges into the capital covered in chalk runes that no one dares erase?
Why does it always rain on the day the Queen delivers her speeches… and why do people think she wants it to?
Those kinds of questions spark lore. Culture. Conflict. And best of all—story.
You’ve probably felt this before. You had a character you loved—they had personality, backstory, all the potential in the world… until your plot railroaded them into acting like a robot. Or you built a city that sounded cool in your head, but on the page it just sat there, flat and lifeless.
That’s what happens when you build with templates instead of curiosity.
Templates ask:
“What’s the weather like in this region?”
Trigger Questions ask:
“What weather is forbidden to speak of—and what happens if someone breaks that rule?”
See the difference?
One gives you data. The other gives you drama.
Templates give you what exists. Trigger Questions reveal what’s hidden.
And in good stories, what’s hidden is always more interesting.
So if you’re tired of your world feeling like a well-organized filing cabinet… grab a compass. Start asking questions that twist your gut, tickle your brain, and wake up the wild things in your imagination.
Let your world surprise you.
That’s when you know you’re doing it right.
Why Writers Need This Right Now
We’re drowning in content. There are more books, games, and streaming shows out there than we could consume in ten lifetimes.
So if you want your world to matter—to stick with a reader long after they’ve turned the last page—you need depth. You need story logic that feels inevitable. You need whispers of a world that feels bigger than what you put on the page.
Trigger Questions build that world.
They make your setting feel lived in. They make your magic systems feel rooted. They make your characters feel like they belong to something older and more complex than a single plotline.
They make the writing easier.
Seriously. I’ve had writers email me after reading the Advanced Worldbuilding guide, and what they share is always the same: "Your Trigger Questions lit my brain on fire." They weren’t just jotting down answers—they were discovering entire belief systems, hidden histories, character motives they never planned for. One writer told me she reworked her entire trilogy after realizing the answers to three questions changed everything.
That’s the kind of ripple effect we’re talking about here.
Where To Start
If you're curious (or desperate—or both), here's your call to action:
Grab a pen.
Ask a Trigger Question.
Write until you can't stop.
Then ask another.
You Can Do This
So yeah—ask better questions.
The right ones.
Not the neat, polite ones that fit inside a tidy little worksheet... but the ones that make your brain ache and your heart race a little.
The ones that whisper: "There’s a secret in this world, and it’s waiting for you to find it."
That’s how you build stories that matter. That’s how you create worlds worth exploring.
And if you ever get stuck?
Just remember my mantra:
“If I can do this, anyone can. The difference is—I did.”
Once you learn to ask better questions, your world will never be the same.
Now go make something amazing.
You Are MORE Than You THINK You ARE!
Show off your shiny new Trigger Questions in the comments below.
About Jaime
Jaime Buckley is an award-winning cartoonist and best-selling author.
More importantly, he’s a loving husband and father of 13 children. Since 1986 he’s worked for famous authors and TV personalities, and illustrated for hundreds of new authors across the genre spectrum. If you can think of a creative project or marketing strategy, Jaime's likely done it… but always finds his greatest success by being himself. You can find Jaime entertaining readers five days a week on LifeOfFiction.com and expanding his fictional lore on WantedHero.com. He also teaches his successful methods exclusively online at No Stress Writing Academy!
Want help with Trigger Questions? I’ve got you covered.
My book, Advanced Worldbuilding, walks you through the whole system. There’s a workbook (yes, homework—but fun) and even downloadable templates to guide you. I also share free insights on my Life of Fiction Substack, where we go deep into worldbuilding, storytelling, and the creative process every week.
Check out my new Worldbuilding Masterclass on No Stress Writing Academy. Now available for a pre-order discount!
And if you're the type who wants to see what happens when a world is built with this system from the ground up? You can always start with Chronicles of a Hero. Wendell Dipmier’s first steps into another world were mapped with Trigger Questions from page one.
